Jan. 20, 2014
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Bode Miller, USA. / Eric Bolte, USA TODAY Sports

by Kelly Whiteside, USA TODAY Sports

by Kelly Whiteside, USA TODAY Sports

Bode Miller might be the graybeard on the alpine team, but when the U.S. Olympic Committee announces its final team roster Monday, Miller is expected to have plenty of 30-and-over company.

If Miller, 36, makes his fifth Olympic team as expected, he would become the oldest alpine Olympian in U.S. history. "A lot of people would probably consider me over the hill or washed up or whatever, and I know that's not the case," Miller said.

Last weekend, he showed it. Miller was fifth at the famed Lauberhorn downhill and earned his first World Cup points in slalom in more than two years in Wengen, Switzerland. This weekend, he will compete in Kitzbuehel, Austria, hoping for the one major prize that has eluded him: the Hahnenkamm, ski racing's most prestigious crown.

In Sochi, the U.S. team will have a handful of gold medal contenders in their fourth decade: skeleton racer Noelle Pikus-Pace, snowboarder Kelly Clark, speedskater Shani Davis and bobsledder Steven Holcomb.

Miller said he feels his age, and it's not just because he's now the all-grown-up married father of two. He just might be the oldest non-curler on the U.S. Olympic team if Nordic combined skier Todd Lodwick, 37, isn't healthy enough to compete. Lodwick dislocated his shoulder and strained ligaments in a recent crash. He could become the first American to compete in six Winter Olympics if he recovers in time.

With better sponsorship opportunities to help extend their careers and more sophisticated sports medicine programs to aid with recovery and, in some cases, rehabilitating injuries, Olympic athletes are finding ways to stay in the game two decades and beyond. At the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, 40% of the USA's 216 athletes were returning Olympians. Of the 529 American athletes at the 2012 Summer Games, 43% were encore Olympians.

U.S skier Ted Ligety, who will join the 30-and-over club in August, said he notices "a lot of athletes in a lot of different sports who are succeeding at an older age. Whether our training is better, or we can stay quicker longer, or medicine is better for coming back from injury ...

"In ski racing, experience goes a long way because it's such a mental sport and I think it takes some years to learn how to use that to your advantage. The hills on the World Cup don't change that often, so it helps to know the ins and outs of the hills. It's become a sport where guys can have success later in their careers."

Ligety noted Swiss skier Didier Cuche's World Cup downhill victory at 37 in 2012 and Miller's impressive performance after missing last season because of microfracture surgery on his left knee. "You don't need to be 21 years old to do well," said Ligety, who plans to compete in at least one more Olympics.

"Ski racing is better than the alternative for most of us," he added. "There's no reason to stop when you're still having fun and are healthy."

But staying healthy isn't always easy, given the constant torque on knee ligaments, especially in skiing and snowboarding. After tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee, Seth Wescott, 37, is somewhat of a long shot to make the snowboard cross team. He finished 31st in the final World Cup event before the Olympics. The two-time defending Olympic gold medalist hopes he'll make the team with a discretionary pick.

He wants a chance to defend the gold in Sochi, but if he doesn't make it, he will focus on the 2018 Games. He points to surfer Kelly Slater as an over-40 athlete who still is the best in the world.

"Action sports is so new still that I don't think anyone's really set the generational bar of how old you can be," Wescott said, adding that he trains differently than he did in his 20s. "I don't necessarily have to ride 100, 150 days a year like I did when I was younger. You pick and choose the days you're going to do really aggressive stuff, and hopefully you're doing it in safe conditions. But the skill set keeps getting stronger, and as long as you're feeling good, for me, progression is still happening in my sport."

Clark, a two-time Olympic medalist, also continues to see progression in the tricks she does on the halfpipe. She attributes some of the success to time management. "It's required a lot more of me," she says of staying on top after winning bronze in 2010. "I can still maintain and lead this sport, but it just takes a lot more investment."

Then there's the U.S. curling team, whose athletes tend to be a bit older. In this work-a-day, everyman sport of the Winter Games, the men's team features a restaurant manager, a middle school science teacher, an engineer and a college student. Even so, the average age for the men's team is a surprisingly spry 26.

Not so for the women's team. Skip Erika Brown is 40 and will compete in her third Games in a 26-year span. Vice skip is Debbie McCormick, 40, second Jessica Schultz is 29, and lead (and grand dame) Ann Swisshelm is 45 and expected to be the oldest Olympian on the U.S .roster.

Still, for these curlers, age is just a number. You can be over 40, hip, happening and curl at the same time, as they demonstrated in their spoof video of What Does the Fox Say? In the clip, the team dresses in animal costumes and curls, which is funny, in an embarrassing mom sort of way.